‘GQ’ Talks ‘Anaconda’, Bananas, and Then Some With Nicki Minaj

Vixen

“I always thought that by the time I put out a third album, I would want to come back to natural hair and natural makeup. I thought, I will shock the world again and just be more toned down. I thought that would be more shocking than to keep on doing exactly what they had already seen.”

On the controversy the very cheeky “Anaconda” video stirred:

“No, it’s just a song, there’s no hidden meaning, no layer beneath. My character in the video is just talking about two guys that she dated in the past and what they’re good at and what they bought her and what they said to her. It’s just cheeky, like a funny story.”

On the placement of the kitchen scene before her strip tease with Drake:

“I’m chopping up the banana. Did you realize that? In the “Anaconda” video. At first I’m being sexual with the banana, and then it’s like, ‘Ha-ha, no.’ That was important for us to show in the kitchen scene, because it’s always about the female taking back the power, and if you want to be flirty and funny that’s fine, but always keeping the power and the control in everything”.

On the hilariously funny viral “Anaconda” memes:

“I just said I’ll put it out, never thought in a billion years that people would be putting [other] people’s heads on it. It’s the craziest shit.”